School Background Check Process Reformed

The state drew heavy fire this month because current lists named a number of school workers who do not have criminal records. A court in Detroit delayed the release of those lists to the public and will now consider stopping it entirely.

Despite the criticism, the state's top educator tells News 10, they did find 12 felons working in Michigan schools.

To correct the mistakes, the state police will now take all the lists of "felons" and sort out the problems.

It's a step in the right direction, local districts say, but perhaps waiting for fingerprinting would have been more useful.

"I think you wait under you have more information, and err on the side of protecting people's reputation," Dan Evans, superintendent of Jackson Public Schools says. "What is the true list? I think the only way to get this is the fingerprinting process."

Schools will be required by law to fingerprint all employees by July 2008. At that time, they'll have to fire anyone with a sex offense, and send notice of any employee with a felony to the school board.

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